European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society
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Whiplash motion of the neck is characterized by having an extension-flexion motion of the neck. It has been previously assumed that muscles do not play a role in the injury. Eight healthy males were seated in a car seat mounted on a sled. ⋯ Shorter reaction times were found to be as low as 13.2 ms from head acceleration and 65.6 ms from sled acceleration. Thus the muscles could influence the injury pattern. It is of interest that clinical symptoms are often attributed to muscle tendon injuries.
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Fracture of a spinal segment with minimal or no compression of the vertebral body can be highly unstable. Screening for such an injury in the lumbar spine is often obstructed in a multi-injured patient, because of difficulty in obtaining adequate sagittal radiographs. The position of the spinous processes in relation to each other is the key for proper evaluation of the status of the posterior stabilising structures. ⋯ The mean values and 99% confidence limits for changes in the interspinal process distances between adjacent spinal levels were determined and analysed in relation to age, gender and spinal segment level. An upper limit of a normal difference in distance between the spinous processes at two adjacent levels was determined to be 7-10 mm, depending on age and location in the lumbar spine. A difference in interspinal process distance exceeding 7 mm between two adjacent lumbar levels should alert a surgeon to severe and unstable injury.
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Laminectomy-induced cauda equina adhesion has been proved by rat experiments and postoperative serial MRI in humans. A degenerative change of the cauda equina has been proved when cauda equina adhesion has been prolonged. Since it has not been reported how the nutritional supply is changed in such a condition, we evaluated the glucose supply to the adhered cauda equina in rats. ⋯ In the 3H-methyl-glucose uptake study, at 12 weeks the glucose transport to the cauda equina from the vessels increased by 44%, and that from the cerebrospinal fluid decreased by 64% in the kaolin group compared with the control group. In the condition of complete cauda equina adhesion, the glucose transport to the cauda equina from the vessels increased by 53% and that from the cerebrospinal fluid remarkably decreased by 72% compared with the normal cauda equina. Considering the greater nutritional importance of the cerebrospinal fluid in the cauda equina, it is most likely that the impairment of nutritional supply to adhered cauda equina may lead to eventual neural degeneration.
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An international congress about "the back of children and teenagers and the prevention of backache" was held in March 1999 in Grenoble (France). Beside specific low back pain following progressive and growth diseases, special attention was paid to non-specific low back pain (LBP). ⋯ An immunohistological study seems to confirm the presence of degenerative-type alterations and changes in collagen in the vertebral plates and nucleus of juvenile spine. These data must be confirmed, and their relation to natural history and prognosis of juvenile LBP have to be clarified by longitudinal studies.
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We investigated the prognosis of low-back pain and the association of clinical symptoms and anatomic findings among young athletes. Consecutive patients, aged between 12 and 18 years, who had low-back pain that had interfered with their training for at least 4 weeks were included in the case series. All the patients participated in a standardized interview and clinical examination, and plain radiographs and magnetic resonance images were also obtained. ⋯ In conclusion, the reasons for prolonged back pain among young athletes are usually established by imaging studies. A knowledge of anatomic abnormalities may help in tailoring training programmes and avoiding the progression of changes during growth. Simple restriction of painful activities usually leads to good recovery.